More Filipinos may leave Saudi next week

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Shutterstock)

MANILA — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Friday said another batch of undocumented Filipinos may be repatriated from Saudi Arabia next week.

“The next batch most likely will be (repatriated) next week. We had one (batch) last week,” said Raul Dado, executive director of DFA office of migrant workers affairs.

Dado said 5,176 Filipinos were already repatriated under Saudi Arabia’s amnesty program out of some 12,000 registered Filipinos.

He added the government targets to bring home around 6,800 more Filipinos “as soon as possible as all host government requirements are complied with and all private obligations of the OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) are settled.”

As Saudi Arabia has extended its visa amnesty for illegal migrants for one more month, the DFA official further said the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh would register more OFWs who wanted to avail of the amnesty.

The Saudi government on Thursday extended the 90-day amnesty for undocumented migrants to leave the country without penalties by 30 days. The program expired on June 25.